Cilla kicks ITV into touch

Looking lean in size 8 leather trousers, Cilla Black yesterday proclaimed herself once more the Queen of Saturday Night TV.

'I'm not a quitter, I'm a survivor,' she said as she launched the 17th series of Blind Date, which will be going out at 7pm on ITV, having seen off a challenge from Des Lynam's football highlights programme The Premiership.

Cilla, now 58, faced the embarrassment of being shunted out of prime time in favour of football. But she said she had exerted pressure on executives to make sure that she was restored to her usual slot.

'Business is business,' she added, looking younger now than she did five years ago and happily referring to herself as a 'grey babe'.

The 5ft 8in star said she had adopted a less mumsy image since the death of her husband Bobby. 'I lost a hell of a lot of weight when he died and I just put it to good use and got fit.

'I have a trainer now who comes on Sunday mornings. I thought about my children, who are all grown up now, but I thought if I go then they will be orphans, so I have got to be fit. I also party a lot which is why I need a trainer.'

The Premiership will be moved from 7pm to 10.30pm following the return of Blind Date on Saturday week.

Cilla said that The Premiership had to go to a later slot because it was a failure. Asked if she had a message for

Lynam, she composed her face into a look of sympathy and said: 'Aaah' before dissolving into giggles.

'The problem was the whole ITV Saturday night had gone, the public were switching on to BBC1. I bumped into Greg Dyke (director general of the BBC) the other night and he told me, with his tongue in his cheek: ''I'm going to miss the football on Saturday nights.'' It wasn't working.

'Des is a great talent, and you don't lose your talent overnight because the project was wrong at a certain time in the evening. It was a bold thing to try with the football, and I love football. But women rule, OK?

'Women look after the children all week and on a Saturday people go and watch their own football team. When they come home and the whole family is there, they want entertainment. Football isn't light entertainment. That's nothing against Des, but that's the way it is.'

She denied that she had threatened to quit if The Premiership

was not moved, saying: 'I'm too professional for that.' But she did admit that she had called Granada TV chairman Charles Allen and asked him to put pressure on ITV to shift the soccer show, which was failing in the ratings.

'I said, when I'm out walking the streets shopping, because I like to shop, everyone was asking me one question - "When is Blind Date coming back?"

'Because if it's autumn, it's got to be Blind Date. I said to Charles, "Can't we rectify something, salvage something and bring Blind Date back?" He said Yes.'

Cilla said she was enjoying life as a single woman. 'I've not been single since I was 18,' she said. 'My friends now are trying to set me up on dates but, you know, it doesn't work.'

Describing herself as a romantic at heart, she said that she didn't have her eye on anyone although she remarked: 'Mel Gibson is nice.

Who else? Oh, the others are too young for me.' Instead, she relied on the so- called Cilla Mafia of homosexual friends such as Lily Savage and Christopher Biggins, who take her out for dinner and on holiday. 'I have a lot of best friends and it's great, I'm safe.

'I'm not ready to be out there in the big wide world yet.

'I am not an inspiration to women who have lost their husbands. I am lucky because I have had a lot of people to lean on. People write to me but there is absolutely nothing you can say.

'I had every cliche thrown at me and I thought at the time, "How can they say that time is the great healer?" Time is the great healer, actually, but it's not what you want to hear.

'You do have a choice: You either go under or you think, No, I'm going to deal with this, and with a lot of help from my friends I have dealt with this.'